The present invention relates generally to the field of roadway paving equipment and more specifically to the field of pavement-shaping devices.
As used herein: “pavement” refers to any material—including, without limitation, asphalt concrete, Portland cement concrete, HMA, soil, or gravel—laid down over a pre-existing roadway; “roadway” refers to any surface on which a paving machine (paver) may be driven including, without limitation, streets, roads, highways, driveways, bicycle paths, jogging paths, runways, and unpaved road beds; “paving” refers to the process of laying down pavement.
In a wide variety of applications, pavement-shaping devices are used to produce a desired shape at the edge of a paved roadway. Often, the desired shape provides a ramp to allow vehicles to more easily and more safely regain the roadway after inadvertently driving off the edge.
Typically, conventional pavement-shaping devices suffer from several disadvantages: wearing of surfaces in contact with the pavement often necessitates expensive replacement of the entire device; and movement of the device to accommodate irregularities in the roadway is often impeded by pavement inadvertently flowing between the device and the paver or by binding of various device moving parts.
Opportunities exist, therefore, to provide an improved pavement-shaping device having, individually or in combination, a detachable forming shoe in contact with the pavement, a flap for preventing pavement from inadvertently flowing between the device and the paver, and an improved restoring assembly for accommodating roadway irregularities without binding.